[Petit Fours #448] On collaboration, normal technology, and the work to make robots work
Good morning from Bergen, Norway! I’m here this week for CSCW 2025. Before switching into full-on conference mode, here’s what I’ve got for you:
#1 The application period is open (until November 30) for another one of the courses of our CIVIS Microprogramme: Digital Society: Addressing Issues of Equity and Justice. “The micro-programme seeks to develop students and support them to become interactional experts’ (Collins, 2004). This term refers to those who can work in interdisciplinary ways to address the challenges of ensuring that digital tools and services are developed in equitable and just ways for the communities these seek to support.“
#2 For those looking to understand what it’s like to complete a PhD in Sweden, I recommend checking out The PhD Wanderer: Essays on Doctoral Studies in Sweden.
#3 Available in the CSCW Medium publication, check out Stuart Reeves’s piece on Opening Up Human-Robot Collaboration. “But what our research finds is that people and robots don’t really ‘collaborate’ in any normal sense of the word. In fact, people are actually doing a load of work to bring about something that — from a distance — might just look like ‘collaboration’.“
#4 And in related news, Stuart Reeves and Hannah Pelikan have a call out for a Social Interaction journal special issue on on the Work to Make the Robots Work, with a deadline for abstracts on Decembeer 1.
-A